Guild Wars
Guild Wars dates from a while ago, but it still has much to recommend it. Game Packs and Expansions There are four game packs, or campaigns, in the Guild Wars family: *Prophecies - initially called just Guild Wars, was released in 2005. The first game has a medieval flavor and takes place in the land of Tyria. *Factions is the second campaign and takes place in the land of Cantha. It has an asian flavor in both the storyline and the costumes and environments. *Nightfall, the third campaign takes place in the land of Elona and has an African theme. Many of the environments, costumes and buildings have an Egyptian flavor. *Eye of the North is an expansion pack that adds content for experienced players from the other campaigns. Character Professions Prophecies introduced 6 professions: *Warriors are tanks and melee fighters with sword or axe. *Rangers wield bow with a pet side kick. *Monks are healers and smiters and provide healing and buffs for other players in the party. *Necromancers curse and raise minions from the fallen to fight with the party. *Mesmers are masters of misdirection and illusion as well as stealing health and energy. *Elementalists call upon Earth, WInd, Fire and Water to deal magical damage with AoE skills. Factions added: *Assassins deal damage with dual daggers and use stealth and speed to avoid damage. *Ritualists summon spirits to help in the fight and deal magic damage. Nightfall added: *Dervishs are desert warriors wielding a scythe and calling upon transforming spirits to change their form. *Paragons are leaders and motivators that buff the party members and wield a spear to strike foes. All characters are of the human race. As you progress in the game, you can move between the campaigns to experience the other environments if you have purchased them. The costs to purchase any or all of the packs is minimal and there are no monthly fees to play. Micro-transactions in the typical range of $5 - $25 allow you to enhance your game play but are not necessary for a complete experience. The photo shows a Paragon character from Nightfall in a jungle in the Eye of the North campaign. The expansive and lush environments are evident everywhere in Guild Wars. Secondary Professions Any character can adopt a secondary profession at about level 5. Once you reach a level 20 and have completed certain quests, you can pay a nominal fee to purchase additional secondary professions. After that you can switch among the secondary professions at any time. Seconary professions gain some non-obvious benefits. A secondary ranger is an early advantage since the pet is helpful while leveling up. Mesmers have spamming skills - which allow them to repeat skills at higher rates than the cooldown will normally allow. An elementalist with a secondary mesmer profession can spam high damage AoE of effect skills to take down whole areas, or kill very powerful single foes. These combinations lead to combinations that make some of the last hard quests of the campaigns childs play for those who are equipped correctly. Heros Nightfall added the concept of Heros which are NPCs that are under the control of a player and can act independently during a fight. The AI intelligence in guild wars for foes and NPCs is very intelligent and this AI is extended in the Heros. A party is made up of players, NPCs called Henchmen available in each town, and heros. Heros can fight, heal and buff the party in many ways. A player has complete control of the skills, stats, armor and weapons of the heros and so can customize them to provide a stronger party. During game play one typically develops a large stable of heros to aid them in various battles. One may change the stats, skills and weapons of a set of heros for a specific quest. One of the important tasks when forming a party is adjusting the heros of the party members so that they work well together. Pets Pets are companions that accompany a ranger, whether that is their primary or secondary professions. Pets are obtained through quests, captured or purchased using real currency or game play rewards from PvP battles. There are large numbers of animals that are available as Pets and many are only available when high level quests are completed. The Tiger in the photo is a pet available in Factions. There is also a white tiger available in that campaign. The photo shows a Nightfall landscape and building. The character is a Ritualist in colored armor who is a secondary Ranger. The tiger is a pet. There is a special pet area that allows characters in the same account to share pets once they are obtained and trained to a higher level. Any number of high level pets can be cloned in this area once a pet of that type has been trained. Instance Gameplay The towns and outposts are persistant areas where players meet, obtain quests, form parties and prepare to face the foes. Once the quest starts, the world is Instanced for that party - that is the party has a private area with foes and the quest items. Each instance area contains a fixed number of foes and one of the accomplishments in later game play is the removal of all foes from an area - Vanquishing. While this style of game play has recently been replaced by completely persistant game play in more recent games, the older style has the advantage that griefing is not possible during a quest since no other parties are present. For modern persistant game play, choose Ether Saga - MMO with Anime Look or Jade Dynasty. Storyline and Quests Each of the campaigns have a rich storyline that meshes to some extent with the other campaigns and the quests carry the player through that storyline. The story is told in short paragraphs rather than long tomes that must be read as the quests are taken. Cut scenes, or cinematics, incorportaing NPCs as well as the players characters, carry the player along through the story so that you never lose track of the story. There are branches in the story sometimes, but all branches can be filled in later after a primary quest has been completed further on. One downside of a strong storyline is that the last few quests of a campaign tend to be very difficult, especially since the characters are capped at level 20. Completing propheses is especially hard. While it is the last campaign added, Eye of the North is actually one of the easier campaigns to complete, along with Factions. I found that a best strategy involved building my character to level 20 and moving far along through any of the campaigns toward the end, then going to Eye of the North and completing that to build my stable of skills and heros, and then coming back to the starting campaign. Each campaign has a unique set of heros and skills that can be acquired for any profession, so that moving through the campaigns even before the end can aid in the battles to come. Rich Choice of Armor and Weapons Weapons and armor are among the most interesting rewards in Guild Wars. Compare this photo of elite Eye of the North weapons and armor on a paragon with the photo of the same character in standard Nightfall armor. The weapon and armor bonus are the same, but the style of the armor and weapons marks the character as having completed the Eye of the North campaign. Skills and Stats Skills and stats can be adjusted up or down when the character is in any town or outpost. A key part of the Guild Wars game is chosing among the dozens of skills available to a character, doing quests to obtain new skills and adjusting the stats, weapons and heros to match for the most powerful game play. Since the level of players and heros are capped at level 20, and monsters have levels higher than 30, careful cooperative play is essential for completion of quests and other missions. Bottom Line Even more than five years after it's release, Guild Wars still sets a high standard for game play, intelligent storyline and character design. The environments are expansive and immersive. It is good to know that the Guild Wars team is working on a follow up project that will bring new ideas to a modern fully persistant world that continues this tradition.